The proposed research is intended primarily to test a model of how people make decisions when the options have several salient features rather than just one. The proposed model seeks to explain single episodic decisions as well as mechanisms by which the process of making such single decision changes or develops. The theoretical framework is an attempt to identify the basis for previously documented characteristics of multiattribute value assessments. It also suggests foundations for espoused personal values. Applied to a particular class of decision problems, the proposed conceptual scheme provides an alternative explanation of some commonly studied problems in motivation. In addition to tests of the proposed model, it is also proposed to test the implications of the model for practical decision making aids. Experiments and observations employing four classes of methods are proposed: (1) judgments and decisions which allow the inference of critical aspects of hypothesized cognitive processes and relationships as applied to completely fictional decision situations; (2) judgments and decisions as in (1), except as applied to decision situations involving the subjects' own values and perceptions; (3) field procedures in which college students are counseled to make certain real-world decisions with the aid of routines predicated on the validity of the proposed conceptual scheme; and (4) subject interactions with computer simulations of hypothesized value and decision structures which shguld reflect the accuracy or inaccuracy of the proposed model.